Adventures with Tonsils

As a child, I often had strep throat and would keep it for what seemed like weeks at a time. Over the past few years, I have been having more throat issues. I had acute tonsillitis four times between late August and January. The last two bouts were only three weeks apart. The doctor decided my tonsils needed to come out.

In case you haven't heard, having a tonsillectomy as an adult is considered pretty major stuff and quite painful. My mother had hers removed a couple of years ago, and had problems and pain for over a month. She even had to return to the hospital a few times after the surgery. The ENT warned me that it was going to hurt. And I'm an a huge weenie with a very low threshold for pain.

My surgery was on February 25th. Just a couple of weeks after I started my new job. The surgery went pretty quickly and I was given ten days worth of liquid antibiotics and liquid pain medication. I was told to take the Vicodin every 4 hours whether I thought I needed it or not. No worries...it quickly became my best friend.

For the first couple of days, the pain was pretty tolerable. Not much worse than having tonsillitis. But something happened on day three, and the pain intensified. GREATLY...

I spent over a week on a completely liquid diet. Then I started having referred pain in my right ear that would come in waves and was the worst pain I have ever felt in my life. Most times I could do nothing but rock back and forth crying until the pain medication kicked in. Even the Vicodin didn't take it completely away.

It is now 2 1/2 weeks post-op. I am finally back on solid foods, unless they are really rough and crunchy. My voice is back and the ear pain went away a couple of days ago. I returned to work this morning after taking two weeks off.

NOTE TO SELF: Advise anyone I come across to take care of the problem as a child. Do NOT wait until you're old. I wouldn't wish this experience on anyone...